Targeted video streaming post-production effects

ABSTRACT

Visual effects such as bleach bypass, sepia tone conversion, cross processing, custom effects, and many others may be applied to video streams before they are displayed to viewers. In some examples, different visual effects may be applied to the same underlying video content, such as on a viewer-by-viewer basis or at other levels of granularity, thereby allowing certain particular visual effects to be targeted to particular viewers/devices. The visual effects may be applied by one or more of a content provider, a video streaming service, one or more viewers, or by other entities. The visual effects may be applied based at least in part on instructions from the provider, such as one or more tags, for example that may be issued via an interface provided by a video streaming service.

BACKGROUND

Video content may be produced for presentation using a variety offormats and devices. As an example, movie and/or television video mayoften be filmed using video cameras, such as at a production studio orother filming location. In some cases, after video is shot and recorded,certain visual effects (e.g., special effects, filters, etc.) may oftenbe applied to the video, which are commonly referred to aspost-production effects. Some common post-production effects may includevisual effects such as bleach bypass, sepia tone conversion, crossprocessing, and other color conversions and/or effects. Post-productioneffects may often be employed to make video appear to relate to acertain time period (e.g., historical, antique, futuristic, etc.), toevoke certain emotional responses in viewers (e.g., a warm, happy, sad,disturbing, intense, excited, etc.), or for other reasons.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The following detailed description may be better understood when read inconjunction with the appended drawings. For the purposes ofillustration, there are shown in the drawings example embodiments ofvarious aspects of the disclosure; however, the invention is not limitedto the specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example service-applied visualeffects targeting system that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example service-applied andviewer-applied visual effects targeting system that may be used inaccordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example service-applied,viewer-applied, and provider-applied visual effects targeting systemthat may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example targeted visual effectsmanagement system that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating first example visual effectsapplications that may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating second example visual effectsapplications that may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating third example visual effectsapplications that may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example visual effects applicationprocess that may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example system for transmitting andproviding data that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example computing system that maybe used in accordance with the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various techniques for targeted application of post-production effectsto streaming video content are described herein. In particular, in someexamples, video content may be streamed from a content provider,sometimes referred to as a streamer, to one or more viewers over one ormore communications networks. In some cases, the video content may bestreamed directly from the content provider to the viewers. In othercases, the video content may be streamed from the content provider to anintermediary, such as a video streaming service, which may, in turn,broadcast the video content to large numbers of viewers. In one specificexample, the content provider may be a video game player that plays avideo game, captures video output from the game, and streams the videooutput to the video streaming service and/or one or more viewers. Insome examples, the video content may include live streaming videocontent, in which video of a live event is captured, and the capturedvideo content is transmitted and played to viewers while the live eventis still occurring. Live streaming video content is played to viewerswith only a small amount of latency between the time that the video iscaptured and the time that the video is presented to the viewers,thereby creating the effect that the video content is being seen live bythe viewers as it occurs in real time (or only very shortly after itoccurs in real time). For example, this may allow viewers to view videoof a video game or other live event while the live event is stilloccurring (e.g., while the video game is still being played). In someexamples, the streamer may operate a video capture component, such asscreen capture software, that captures video from the streamer's device,such as video of a game being played by the streamer, for transmissionto the viewers.

In some examples, one or more post-production visual effects may beapplied to the video content that is streamed from the content providerto the viewers. For example, for video gaming content such as describedabove, the post-production visual effects may, in some cases, be appliedto the video content after the video content has been rendered andoutput by the video game that is being played by the streamer. Thepost-production visual effects may be applied to the streaming videocontent by any combination of one or more nodes along the content'stransmission path. For example, in some cases, the one or more visualeffects may be applied by the content provider, by the video streamingservice, by the viewers, and/or by one or more other intermediaries.

Application of visual effects to the video content by the videostreaming service may provide a number of advantages. For example, byapplying visual effects at the video streaming service, it may bepossible to target different visual effects to different viewers, whilestill only requiring a single stream of video content to be transmittedfrom the content provider to the video streaming service. For example,in some cases, the video streaming service may receive a particularstream of video content from a content provider. The video streamingservice may then apply a first visual effect to the video content andtransmit the video content, with the first visual effect appliedthereto, to a first viewer. The video streaming service may also apply asecond visual effect to the video content and transmit the videocontent, with the second visual effect applied thereto, to a secondviewer. In some cases, the first visual effect may not applied to thevideo sent to second viewer, while the first visual effect may also notbe applied to the video sent to the first viewer. This may allow thefirst visual effect to be targeted to the first viewer, while alsoallowing the second visual effect to be targeted to the second viewer.

Thus, as described above, the techniques described herein may allowtargeting of different post-production visual effects to differentstream viewers. Unlike the targeting techniques described herein,post-production visual effects may often be applied to traditional movieand television content using a “one size fits all” approach in which thesame video content with the same applied visual effects is distributedto all viewers. By contrast, the visual effects targeting techniquesdescribed herein may allow different visual effects to be applied to thesame video content that is transmitted and/or presented to differentstream viewers.

In some examples, different visual effects may also be applied locallyby individual viewers at their respective local/client devices.Application of visual effects locally by viewers may offer some of thesame visual effect targeting benefits described above. It is noted,however, that application of visual effects by the video streamingservice may still offer additional benefits in comparison toviewer/client devices. For example, application of visual effects by thevideo streaming service may allow visual effects to be applied and sentto large numbers of viewer devices without requiring duplication of theeffects processing at each viewer device. Additionally, the videostreaming service may often offer enhanced processing capabilities(e.g., server-based and/or cloud-based processing) that may not beavailable at local viewer/client devices. These enhanced processingcapabilities may potentially allow visual effects to be applied morequickly and with higher quality, detail and reliability.

In some embodiments, regardless of whether the visual effects areapplied by the content provider, the video streaming service, theviewers, and/or by others, the content provider may still have at leastpartial control over the application of visual effects to video contentprovided by the content provider. For example, in some cases, thecontent provider may be able to at least partially control factors suchas which visual effects are applied to the video content, at which timesthe visual effects are applied, to which portions of the video contentthe visual effects are applied, to which viewers the applied visualeffects are provided, and many other factors. In particular, in someexamples, the content provider may issue instructions, such as one ormore tags, that indicate the content provider's preferences forapplication of the visual effects to the video content. In someexamples, these instructions may be embedded into the video contentstream that is transmitted from the content provider to the videostreaming service, such as in the headers or in other fields orlocations within the video content stream. In other examples, theinstructions may be transmitted separately (i.e., external to the videostream) from the content provider to the video streaming service.

In one specific example, the video streaming service may provide aninterface to the content provider that assists in the application ofvisual effects to video streams. For example, in some cases, theinterface may include a listing of visual effects that are madeavailable by the video streaming service for application to videostreams. The interface may then allow the content provider to select oneor more of the available visual effects, for example for application toone or streams that the content provider is currently transmitting, willtransmit in the future, and/or has already transmitted at some priortime. Also, in some examples, the interface may indicate one or morestream viewers that are currently viewing a video content stream, andmay allow the content provider to target different visual effects todifferent viewers. For example, the interface may allow the contentprovider to specify that a first visual effect is to be applied to videocontent that is transmitted to a first viewer, while a second visualeffect is to be applied to video content that is transmitted to a secondviewer. Furthermore, in some examples, the interface may allow theprovider to specify that certain visual effects should be applied atcertain times of day, to certain types of video content, to particularframes, portions of frames (e.g., coordinates, etc.) or other portionsof the video content, and the like. For example, the interface may allowthe content provider to request that a night-vision effect should beapplied to video content that is transmitted during night times, while abrightening effect should be applied to content that is transmittedduring day times. In yet other examples, the interface may allow thecontent provider to request that certain visual effects should beapplied to war or shooting video games, while other visual effectsshould be applied to sports or racing video games. Furthermore, in someexamples, the interface may allow the content provider to specify thatcertain visual effects should be applied to video transmitted to viewerdevices having certain particular characteristics, such as certainscreen sizes, resolutions, processing and/or memory capabilities,operating systems, processor types, certain types of devices (e.g.,phones, televisions, tablets, laptop computers, etc.), and othercharacteristics.

In yet other examples, state data from a video game may be provided by acontent provider (or from a game server or other entity) to the videostreaming service and used by the video streaming service to determinewhen to apply certain visual effects. For example, the interface mayallow the content provider to request that certain visual effects shouldbe applied when the content provider is winning a match, while othervisual effects should be applied when the content provider is losing amatch. Additionally, content providers may request that certain visualeffects should be applied when the content provider's character is atcertain virtual locations in the game world, such as in forests, cities,mountains, etc. Furthermore, in some examples, the interface may allowthe content provider to create and define custom visual effects for usewith the content provider's video. For example, the interface may allowthe content provider to create pixel conversion lookup tables or provideother information for converting pixel values to create a visual effect.The interface may also allow the content provide to edit availablevisual effects, such as by combining effects, changing pixel conversionrules, and the like.

In some examples, viewers may also be permitted to provide instructionsor other input regarding visual effects that are applied to thestreaming video content. For example, in some cases, the video streamingservice may provide a viewer interface that allows the viewers toprovide input regarding application of visual effects. In particular, insome examples, the viewer interface may indicate a group of visualeffects that have been approved by the content provider and may allowthe viewer to select one or more visual effects from the group of visualeffects that are approved by the content provider. Also, in someexamples, viewers may be permitted to propose one or more visual effectsvia the viewer's interface, and the content provider may be permitted toaccept or decline the proposed visual effects via the provider'sinterface. In other examples, providers may be permitted to propose oneor more visual effects via the provider's interface, and a viewer may bepermitted to accept or decline the proposed visual effects via theviewer's interface.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an example visual effects targeting system willnow be described in detail. In particular, as shown in FIG. 1, videocontent 105 may be streamed from a content provider and/or streamer,namely provider 100, to viewers 150A-E, over one or more communicationsnetworks. In the example of FIG. 1, the video content 105 is streamedfrom provider 100 to viewers 150A-E via an intermediary, namely videostreaming service 110. In some examples, however, video content 105 maybe streamed directly from the provider 100 to the viewers 150A-E, forexample without passing through video streaming service 110 and/or otherintermediaries. The video content 105 may be streamed from provider 100to video streaming service 110 and, in turn, from video streamingservice 110 to viewers 105A-E over one or more communications networks,for example including one or more local area networks (LAN's) and/or oneor more wide area networks (WAN's) such as the Internet. The videocontent 105 may be transmitted using streaming video transmissiontechniques, in which portions of the video content 105 are received andplayed by a recipient (e.g., viewers 150A-E) while subsequent portionsof the same video content 105 are still being transmitted by a sender(e.g., video streaming service 110 and/or provider 100). In one specificexample, the provider 100 may be a video game player that plays a videogame, captures video output from the game, and streams the video outputto the video streaming service and/or one or more viewers. In someexamples, the provider 100 may include or operate a video capturecomponent, such as screen capture software, that captures video from theprovider's device, such as video of a game being played by the provider,for transmission to the viewers 150A-E.

In some examples, video content 105 may include live streaming videocontent, in which video of a live event is captured, and the capturedvideo content is transmitted and played to viewers while the live eventis still occurring. Live streaming video content is played to viewerswith only a small amount of latency between the time that the video iscaptured and the time that the video is presented to the viewers,thereby creating the effect that the video content is being seen live bythe viewers as it occurs in real time (or only very shortly after itoccurs in real time). Events that are included in live streaming videocontent may include events such as live video games, live sportingevents, live news or entertainment events, and the like. For example, insome cases, live streaming may allow viewers 150A-E to view video of avideo game or other live event while the live event is still occurring(e.g., while the video game is still being played).

As shown in FIG. 1, visual effects 120A-C, which may be post-productionvisual effects, may be applied to the video content 105. For example,for video gaming content such as described above, the post-productionvisual effects may, in some cases, be applied to the video content afterthe video content has been rendered and output by the video game that isbeing played by the provider. In some examples, visual effects 120A-Cmay include visual effects such as bleach bypass, sepia tone conversion,cross processing, and other color conversions and/or effects. It isnoted, however, that visual effects 120A-C are not limited to these orany other types of visual effects and may also include, for example,unique or custom visual effects, combinations of visual effects, editedor modified visual effects, and other types of visual effects.Post-production effects may often be employed to make video appear torelate to a certain time period (e.g., historical, antique, futuristic,etc.), to evoke certain emotional responses in viewers (e.g., a warm,happy, sad, disturbing, intense, excited, etc.), or for other reasons.In some examples, application of visual effects 120A-C may includeconverting color values of one or more pixels from an input color valueto an output color value. In particular, in some cases, the pixel colorvalue conversions may be applied on a pixel-by-pixel basis and/or on aframe-by-frame basis. In some examples, the pixel color valueconversions may be performed using a lookup table, a per-pixel colorconversion algorithm, and/or other conversion information, for examplethat indicates one or more input pixel color values and that indicates,for each identified input pixel color value, a corresponding respectiveoutput pixel color value to which the input pixel value is to converted.The above described example characteristics of visual effects 120A-C mayalso optionally apply to any or all other visual effects mentioned ordescribed in this document.

In the example of FIG. 1, visual effects 120A-C are applied to the videocontent 105 by the video streaming service 110. As described above, thismay provide a number of advantages. For example, by applying visualeffects 120A-C at the video streaming service 110, it may be possible totarget different visual effects to different viewers, while still onlyrequiring a single stream of video content to be transmitted from thecontent provider to the video streaming service. For example, as shownin FIG. 1, the video streaming service 110 may apply visual effect 120Ato the video content 105 and transmit the video content 105, with thefirst visual effect 120A applied thereto, to viewers 150A-B. At the sametime, the video streaming service 110 may also apply visual effect 120Bto the video content 105 and transmit the video content 105, with thevisual effect 120B applied thereto, to viewers 150C-D. In the example ofFIG. 1, the visual effect 120A may not be applied to the video sent toviewers 150A-B, while the visual effect 120B may also not be applied tothe video sent to the viewers 150C-D. This may allow visual effect 120Ato be targeted to viewers 150A-B, while also allowing the visual effect120B to be targeted to viewers C-D. For example, in some cases, visualeffect 120A could be a cross processing effect, while visual effect 120Bcould be a sepia tone conversion effect.

Additionally, in the example of FIG. 1, a third visual effect 120C isspecifically targeted to viewer 150C, such that both visual effects 120Band 120C are applied to the video content 105 that is sent to viewer150C. Visual effect 120C may not be applied to the video content 105that is sent to other viewers 120A, B, D and E. Furthermore, in theexample of FIG. 1, video content 105 may be transmitted to viewer 150Ewith no visual effects applied thereto, thereby illustrating that thereis no requirement that any or all visual effects be applied to videocontent that is sent to any particular viewer. It is noted that theexample applications and distributions of visual effects shown in FIG. 1are non-limiting and that any number and combination of different visualeffects may be employed in accordance with the disclosed techniques.

In some examples, in addition or as an alternative to applying visualeffects by the video streaming service, visual effects may be appliedindividually by one or more viewer/client nodes or devices. Referringnow to FIG. 2, an example of viewer-applied visual effects will now bedescribed in detail. In particular, as shown in FIG. 2, a fourth visualeffect 120D is applied by viewer 150F at a local node and/or deviceoperated by viewer 150F. In some examples, visual effect 120D may beapplied only to the video content 105 presented to viewer 150F and notto other viewers 150A-E. In the particular example of FIG. 2, visualeffect 120D is a different visual effect than visual effects 120A-C. Itis noted, however, that visual effects applied by viewer devices may bethe same or different than visual effects applied by the video streamingservice 110 and/or the provider 100.

Thus, in some examples, similar to application of visual effects by thevideo streaming service 110, application of visual effects locally byviewers may also allow visual effect targeting to particular viewers. Itis noted, however, that application of visual effects by the videostreaming service 110 may still offer additional benefits in comparisonto viewer/client devices. For example, application of visual effects bythe video streaming service 110 may allow visual effects to be appliedand sent to large numbers of viewer devices without requiringduplication of the effects processing at each viewer device.Additionally, in some examples, the video streaming service 110 mayoften offer enhanced processing capabilities (e.g., server-based and/orcloud-based processing) that may not be available at local viewer/clientdevices. These enhanced processing capabilities may potentially allowvisual effects to be applied more quickly and with higher quality,detail and reliability.

In yet other examples, in addition or as an alternative to applyingvisual effects by the video streaming service and/or the viewers, visualeffects may be applied by the provider 100. Referring now to FIG. 3, anexample of provider-applied visual effects will now be described indetail. In particular, as shown in FIG. 3, a visual effect 120E isapplied to video content 105 by provider 100. The video content 105 withvisual effect 120E applied thereto is then transmitted, via videostreaming service 110, to viewer 150G. Additionally, another visualeffect 120F is applied to video content 105 by provider 100. The videocontent 105 with visual effect 120F applied thereto is then presentedlocally to the provider 100 (e.g., on a node/device operated by theprovider) via display 107. In some examples, visual effect 120F may beapplied only to the video content 105 presented to provider 100 and notto viewers 150A-G. This may allow, for example, the provider 100 to viewcertain visual effects (e.g., visual effect 120F) that may be desirablefor the provider but that may not be desirable for viewers 150A-G, suchas visual effects that may assist the provider in playing a video gamebut that may be distracting to non-player viewers. Additionally, in someexamples, visual effects 120A-E may be applied only to the video content105 presented to viewers 150A-G and not to provider 100. This may allow,for example, the viewers 150A-G to view certain visual effects (e.g.,visual effects 120A-E) that may be desirable for the viewers 150A-G butthat may not be desirable for provider 100, such as visual effects thatmay assist enhance the viewing experience of non-player video gameviewers but that may be distracting to video game players. In theparticular example of FIG. 3, visual effect 120E-F are different visualeffects than visual effects 120A-D. It is noted, however, that visualeffects applied by the provider may be the same or different than visualeffects applied by the video streaming service 110 and/or the viewers150.

Although not depicted in FIGS. 1-3, it is noted that the output of anyor all of visual effects 120A-E may be recorded and stored for futureviewing. This may enable, for example, different copies of the samevideo content (e.g. video from the same video game) to be stored withdifferent visual effects applied thereto. For example, a first copy ofvideo from a video game may have a cross processing effect appliedthereto, while a second copy of video from the same video game couldhave a sepia tone conversion effect applied thereto. Any or all of thesedifferent copies may then subsequently be retrieved and played toviewers upon request. Additionally, other different visual effects mayapplied to other copies of the same video content that are recorded andstored even in cases when those visual effects are not viewed live byany viewers—such as when the visual effects are applied solely for thepurpose of being recorded and viewed at a later time.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an example targeted visual effects managementsystem will now be described in detail. In particular, as shown in FIG.4, video content 105 is transmitted from provider 100 to video streamingservice 110 over one or more communications networks. Video streamingservice 110 operates an effects manager 400, which manages applicationof visual effects 440 to the video content 105. In particular, in theexample of FIG. 4, two visual effects 440A-B are being simultaneouslyapplied to the video content 105. Visual effect 440A is applied to thevideo content 105 that is transmitted to viewers 450A-B. Additionally,visual effect 440B is applied to the video content 105 that istransmitted to viewers 450C-D. In this particular example, visual effect440A is not applied to the video content 105 that is transmitted toviewers 450C-D. Additionally, visual effect 440B is not applied to thevideo content 105 that is transmitted to viewers 450A-B. Also, in thisexample, no visual effects are applied to the video content 105 that istransmitted to viewer 450E. In the example of FIG. 4, visual effects440A-B are each applied using a respective lookup table 410A-B. Forexample, for visual effect 440A, lookup table 410A may indicate one ormore input pixel color values that may be included in the video content105 received from the provider 100. Lookup table 410A may indicate, foreach identified input pixel color value, a corresponding respectiveoutput pixel color value to which the input pixel value is to beconverted. Lookup table 410B may include pixel conversion informationfor visual effect 440B. Thus, for one or more of the same input pixelcolor values, the output pixel color values indicated in lookup table410A may be at least partially different from the output pixel colorvalues indicated in lookup table 410B.

In the example of FIG. 4, effects manager 400 controls input routing 405and output routing 445 to and from the visual effects 440. For example,input routing 405 may include assigning one or more components to applyeach visual effect 440A-B and routing an incoming stream of the videocontent 105 such that it is provided to the assigned components for eachof the visual effects 440A-B. In some examples, this may include makingone or more copies of the incoming video content 105 or otherwisedividing and/or distributing the video content 105 into multiple streamssuch that different visual effects may be applied to different streams.Output routing 445 may include routing the output of each visual effect440A-B to one or more viewers that are designated to view video content105 having the particular visual effects 440A-B applied thereto.Additionally, for scenarios in which at least one viewer 450E isdesignated to receive video content 105 with no visual effects appliedthereto, input routing 405 and output routing 445 may also includerouting video content 105 such that it is delivered to the appropriateviewer(s) 450E with no visual effects applied thereto.

In some examples, effects manager 400 may perform operations such asdetermining when to begin applying new/different visual effects to thevideo content 105, when to cease applying visual effects to the videocontent 105, when to combine, edit or modify visual effects and manyother operations. Additionally, effects manager 400 may perform routingoperations such as determining when a particular viewer is to startand/or stop receiving video content having one or more particular visualeffects applied thereto, when a viewer is to switch from one visualeffect to another, to receive combined or modified visual effects, andthe like. In some examples, effects manager 400 may perform theabove-described and other determinations, including for example inputrouting 405 and output routing 445, based, at least in part, on providerinstructions 460 and/or viewer instructions 470.

Provider instructions 460 may generally include instructions from theprovider 100, such as tags, interface selections, and the like, thatrelate to application of visual effects to the video content 105. Insome embodiments, regardless of whether the visual effects are appliedby the provider 100, the video streaming service 110, the viewers 450,and/or by others, the provider 100 may still have at least partialcontrol over the application of visual effects to video content 105provided by the provider 100. For example, in some cases, the provider100 may be able to at least partially control factors such as whichvisual effects are applied to the video content 105, at which times thevisual effects are applied, to which portions of the video content 105the visual effects are applied, to which viewers the applied visualeffects are provided, and many other factors. In particular, in someexamples, the provider instructions 460 may indicate the provider'spreferences for application of the visual effects to the video content105. In some examples, at least part of the provider instructions 460may be embedded into the video content stream that is transmitted fromthe provider 100 to the video streaming service 110, such as in theheaders or in other fields or locations within the video content stream.Also, in some examples, at least part of the provider instructions 460may be transmitted separately (i.e., external to the video stream) fromthe provider 100 to the video streaming service 110.

As shown in FIG. 4, the video streaming service 110 may provide aninterface 480 to the provider 100 that assists in the application ofvisual effects to video streams. For example, in some cases, theinterface 480 may include a listing of visual effects that are madeavailable by the video streaming service 110 for application to videostreams. The interface 480 may then allow the provider 100 to select oneor more of the available visual effects, for example for application toone or streams that the content provider is currently transmitting, willtransmit in the future, and/or has already transmitted at some priortime. Also, in some example, the interface 480 may indicate one or morestream viewers that are currently viewing a video content stream, andmay allow the provider 100 to target different visual effects todifferent viewers. For example, the interface 480 may allow the provider100 to specify that visual effect 440A is to be applied to video content105 that is transmitted to viewers 450A-B, that visual effect 440B is tobe applied to video content 105 that is transmitted to viewers 450C-D,and/or that no visual effect is to be applied to video content 105 thatis transmitted to viewer 450E.

In some examples, the interface 480 may allow provider 100 to specifythat certain visual effects should be applied at certain times of day,to certain types of video content, to particular frames, portions offrames (e.g., coordinate ranges, etc.) or other portions of the videocontent, and the like. For example, the interface 480 may allow theprovider 100 to request that a night-vision effect should be applied tovideo content that is transmitted during night times, while abrightening effect should be applied to content that is transmittedduring day times. In yet other examples, the interface 480 may allow theprovider 100 to request that certain visual effects should be applied towar or shooting video games, while other visual effects should beapplied to sports or racing video games. Furthermore, in some examples,the interface 480 may allow the provider 100 to specify that certainvisual effects should be applied to video transmitted to viewer deviceshaving certain particular characteristics, such as certain screen sizes,resolutions, processing and/or memory capabilities, operating systems,processor types, certain types of devices (e.g., phones, televisions,tablets, laptop computers, etc.), and other characteristics. In yetother examples, state data from a video game may be transmitted fromprovider 100 (or from a game server or other entity) to the videostreaming service 110 and used by the video streaming service 110 todetermine when to apply certain visual effects. For example, theinterface 480 may allow the provider 100 to request that certain visualeffects should be applied when the provider 100 is winning a match,while other visual effects should be applied when the provider 100 islosing a match. Additionally, the provider 100 may request that certainvisual effects should be applied when the provider's character is atcertain virtual locations in the game world, such as in forests, cities,mountains, etc. Furthermore, in some examples, the interface 480 mayallow the provider 100 to create and define custom visual effects foruse with the provider's video. For example, the interface 480 may allowthe provider 100 to create pixel conversion lookup tables or provideother information for converting pixel values to create a visual effect.The interface 480 may also allow the content provide to edit availablevisual effects, such as by combining effects, changing pixel conversionrules, and the like.

As also shown in FIG. 4, effects manager 400 may receive viewerinstructions 470 from one or more of viewers 450. Viewer instructions470 may generally include instructions regarding the viewer'spreferences for application of visual effects to the streaming videocontent 105. For example, in some cases, the video streaming service mayprovide a viewer interface to one or more of viewers 450 that allowsinput of the viewer instructions 470. In particular, in some examples,the viewer interface may indicate a group of visual effects that havebeen approved by the provider 100 and may allow the viewer to select oneor more visual effects from the group of visual effects that areapproved by the provider 100. Also, in some examples, a viewer may bepermitted to propose one or more visual effects via the viewer'sinterface, and the provider 100 may be permitted to accept or declinethe proposed visual effects via the provider's interface 480. In otherexamples, provider 100 may be permitted to propose one or more visualeffects via the provider interface 480, and a viewer may be permitted toaccept or decline the proposed visual effects via the viewer'sinterface.

Referring now to FIGS. 5-7, some examples of applying visual effects inaccordance with the above techniques will now be described in detail. Inparticular, as shown in FIG. 5, a stream 501 including video content maybe captured by a provider, such as a video game player/streamer, andtransmitted by the provider to viewers via an intermediate videostreaming service as described above. The provider may issue variousprovider instructions 520A-C, which may each be examples of the providerinstructions 460 described above with respect to FIG. 4. As set forthabove, in some cases, provider instructions 520A-C may be embedded intothe video stream that is sent from the provider to the video streamingservice, such as in a header of the video stream. Also, in some cases,provider instructions 520A-C may not be included within the video streamand may be sent separately from the video stream, such as via anexternal data stream and/or via other communication paths.

As shown in FIG. 5, provider instructions 520A may be associated with atime 551 and may include instructions to start applying a particularvisual effect 510A to stream 501. The provider instructions 520A may bereceived by the video streaming service and may cause the videostreaming service to start applying visual effect 510A to stream 501 attime 551. This is indicated in FIG. 5 by showing visual effect 510Awithin stream 501 to the right of the vertical line representing time551. In some examples, provider instructions 520A may be received by thevideo streaming service at time 551, and the video streaming service mayinstantaneously (or almost instantaneously) begin applying visual effect510A to stream 501. In other examples, provider instructions 520A may besent in advance of time 551 and may include instructions to beginapplying visual effect 510A at time 551.

As also shown in FIG. 5, provider instructions 520B may be associatedwith a time 552 and may include instructions to stop applying visualeffect 510A and to start applying another visual effect 510B to stream501. The provider instructions 520B may be received by the videostreaming service and may cause the video streaming service, at time552, to stop applying visual effect 510A and to start applying visualeffect 510B to stream 501. This is indicated in FIG. 5 by showing visualeffect 510B within stream 501 to the right of the vertical linerepresenting time 552. In some examples, provider instructions 520B maybe received by the video streaming service at time 552, and the videostreaming service may instantaneously (or almost instantaneously) stopapplying visual effect 510A and begin applying visual effect 510B. Inother examples, provider instructions 520A may be sent in advance oftime 552 and may include instructions to stop applying visual effect510A and begin applying visual effect 510B at time 552.

Additionally, provider instructions 520C may be associated with a time553 and may include instructions to start applying another visual effect510C to stream 501. The provider instructions 520B may be received bythe video streaming service and may cause the video streaming service,at time 553, to start applying visual effect 510C to stream 501 (whilealso continuing to apply visual effect 510B). This is indicated in FIG.5 by showing visual effects 510B and 510C within stream 501 to the rightof the vertical line representing time 553. In some examples, providerinstructions 520C may be received by the video streaming service at time553, and the video streaming service may instantaneously (or almostinstantaneously) begin applying visual effect 510C. In other examples,provider instructions 520C may be sent in advance of time 553 and mayinclude instructions to begin applying visual effect 510C at time 553.

Referring now to FIG. 6, streams 601 and 602 including video content maybe captured by a provider, such as a video game player/streamer, andtransmitted by the provider to viewers via an intermediate videostreaming service. In particular, stream 601 is transmitted to Viewer A,while stream 602 is transmitted to Viewer B. In this example, theprovider may issue various provider instructions 620A-B, which may eachbe examples of the provider instructions 460 described above withrespect to FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 6, provider instructions 620A may beassociated with a time 651 and may include instructions to startapplying visual effect 610A to Viewer A's stream (i.e., stream 601).Additionally, provider instructions 620A may also include instructionsto start applying a different visual effect 610B to Viewer B's stream(i.e., stream 602). The provider instructions 520A may be received bythe video streaming service and may cause the video streaming service tostart applying visual effect 610A to stream 601 at time 651 and also tostart applying visual effect 610B to stream 602 at time 651. This isindicated in FIG. 6 by showing visual effect 610A within stream 601 tothe right of the vertical line representing time 651 and by showingvisual effect 610B within stream 602 to the right of the vertical linerepresenting time 651. As should be appreciated, this allows theprovider to target visual effect 610A to Viewer A, while also targetinga different visual effect 610B to Viewer B.

As also shown in FIG. 6, provider instructions 620B may be associatedwith a time 652 and may include instructions to stop applying visualeffect 610A and to start applying visual effect 610C to Viewer A'sstream (i.e., stream 601). The provider instructions 520B may bereceived by the video streaming service and may cause the videostreaming service to, at time 652, stop applying visual effect 610A andstart applying visual effect 610C to stream 601. This is indicated inFIG. 6 by showing visual effect 610C within stream 601 to the right ofthe vertical line representing time 652. It is noted that providerinstructions 620B do not indicate a change to Viewer B's stream, and,therefore, visual effect 610B continues to be applied to stream 602. Asshould be appreciated, this allows the provider to target visual effect610C to Viewer A, while also targeting a different visual effect 610B toViewer B.

Referring now to FIG. 7, streams 701 and 702 including video content maybe captured by a provider, such as a video game player/streamer, andtransmitted by the provider to viewers via an intermediate videostreaming service. In particular, stream 701 is transmitted to Viewer X,while stream 702 is transmitted to Viewer Y. In this example, theprovider may issue provider instructions 720A, which may be an exampleof the provider instructions 460 described above with respect to FIG. 4.As shown in FIG. 7, provider instructions 720A may be associated with atime 751 and may indicate that visual effects 710A-D are approved visualeffects that are approved by the provider for application to streams701-702 and possibly other streams from the provider. Additionally, inthis example, Viewer X may issue Viewer X instructions 730X and 740X,and Viewer Y may issue Viewer Y instructions 730Y and 740Y, which may beexamples of the viewer instructions 470 described above with respect toFIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 7, Viewer X instructions 730X may be associated withtime 751 and may request that visual effect 710A is to start beingapplied to stream 701. This request is accepted because visual effect710A is included within the visual effects 710A-D that are approved bythe provider within provider instructions 720. Thus, visual effect 710Ais applied to stream 701 at time 751. Additionally, Viewer Yinstructions 730Y may be associated with time 751 and may request thatvisual effect 710B is to start being applied to stream 702. This requestis also accepted because visual effect 710B is included within thevisual effects 710A-D that are approved by the provider within providerinstructions 720. Thus, visual effect 710B is applied to stream 702 attime 751.

Furthermore, Viewer X instructions 740X may be associated with time 752and may request that visual effect 710X is to start being applied tostream 701. This request is denied because visual effect 710X is notincluded within the visual effects 710A-D that are approved by theprovider within provider instructions 720. Thus, visual effect 710X isnot applied to stream 701. In some examples, an error message may beprovided to Viewer X and may indicate why the request was denied and/ormay provide a list of the approved visual effects 710A-D that areapproved by the provider. Additionally, Viewer Y instructions 740Y maybe associated with time 751 and may request that visual effect 710B isto stop being applied and visual effect 710C is to start being appliedto stream 702. This request is accepted because visual effect 710C isincluded within the visual effects 710A-D that are approved by theprovider within provider instructions 720. Thus, at time 752, visualeffect 710C is applied to stream 702, while application of visual effect710B is stopped.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example visual effects application processincluding visual effects targeting will now be described in detail. Insome examples, the process of FIG. 8 may be performed by one or more ofa content provider compute node, a video streaming service, a viewercompute node, and/or by other nodes or devices. As shown, the process ofFIG. 8 is initiated at operation 810, at which video content isreceived. In some examples, operation 810 may be include receipt, by avideo streaming service (e.g., video streaming service 110), of videocontent that is transmitted to the video service by a content provider(e.g., provider 100). As set forth above, in some examples, the videocontent may include video corresponding to (e.g., captured from) anevent, such as a video game, a news event, sports event, or other event.In some examples, the video content may be captured from the event usingscreen capture software operated by the content provider, such assoftware that captures rendered graphical output of a video game. Also,in some examples, a plurality of video streams including the videocontent may be provided to a plurality of viewer nodes for display to aplurality of viewers. Each viewer node may include, for example, one ormore computing devices and/or components operated by, or otherwiseassociated with, one or more respective viewers, such as computingdevices and/or components that receive and play the video content. Insome cases, the video content may be presented using live streamingwhereby at least part of the video content is displayed, by theplurality of viewer nodes, to the plurality of viewers, while the eventis still occurring.

At operation 812A, instructions are received related to applying a firstvisual effect to at least a first portion of the video content for oneor more first viewers. The first portion of the video content mayinclude, for example, one or more frames of the video content and/orportions of one or more frames of the video content. As set forth above,the first visual effect may include, for example, bleach bypass, sepiatone conversion, cross processing, a custom visual effect, and/or anycombination of these or other visual effects.

In some examples, operation 812A may include receipt of the firstinstructions by a video streaming service, such as by effects manager400 of FIG. 4 and/or other components of the video streaming service.The first instructions received at operation 812A may include providerinstructions 460 of FIG. 4, viewer instructions 470 of FIG. 4, and/orany combination of these or other instructions. In some examples, thefirst instructions may identify the first viewers individually, such asby specific viewer names, identifiers, and the like. In other examples,the instructions may not identify the first viewers individually, butmay instead indicate the first viewers based on various characteristics,such as viewers in particular locations, viewers having particular ages,viewers operating devices with particular characteristics (e.g., screensize, resolution, memory, processing speed, etc.), and many others. Inyet other examples, the instructions may be issued by a particularviewer and may be executed on a local client device operated by theviewer.

In some examples, the first instructions may include instructions fromthe provider to apply a particular visual effect to the first portion ofthe video content. Also, in some examples, the first instructions mayinclude indications of a plurality of approved visual effects that theprovider approves of for application to the video content. In someexamples, the plurality of approved visual effects may include the firstvisual effect, and the one or more first viewers may select the firstvisual effect from the plurality of approved visual effects.Additionally, in some examples, the first visual effect may be proposedby the one or more first viewers and accepted by the provider.Furthermore, in some examples, access to the first visual effect may beprovided based, at least in part, on a quantity of viewers of the videocontent. For example, a video streaming service may allow the firstvisual effect to be applied to video content that has above a particularthreshold quantity of viewers (e.g., average viewers, current totalviewers, etc.). The first visual effect may be made available for use onthe video content based on the quantity of viewers of the video contentexceeding the threshold quantity. In yet other examples, the videocontent may be from a video game, and the first visual effect may beapplied based at least in part on state data from the video game. Forexample, a provider may issue instructions to apply the first visualeffect when the provider is winning a match and/or has moved hischaracter to a particular virtual location in a game world. The videostreaming service may examine the state data from the video game todetermine that the state data indicates or matches the criteria forapplying the first visual effect (e.g., the provider is winning a matchand/or has moved his character to a particular virtual location in agame world) and may then apply the first visual effect based on thisdetermination.

At operation 814A, a first video stream is generated that includes thefirst portion of the video content with the first visual effect appliedthereto. Operation 814A may include applying the first visual effect tothe video content. In some examples, the first visual effect may includeconversion of one or more first pixel color values of the first portionof the video content to one or more second pixel color values. Also, insome examples, the conversion may include use of a lookup table, aper-pixel color conversion algorithm, and/or other information thatallows determination of the one or more second pixel color values basedon the one or more first pixel color values. As set forth above, thefirst video stream may be included in a plurality of video streams thatinclude the video content and that are provided for display to aplurality of viewers. In some examples, the first visual effect may notbe applied to the first portion of the video content in at least oneother video stream of the plurality of video streams—and in some casesmay not be applied to the first portion of the video content in anyother video stream of the plurality of video streams. At operation 816A,the first video stream is provided for display to the one or more firstviewers, such as by transmitting the first video stream over one or morecommunications networks to a first viewer node of the plurality ofviewer nodes and/or by providing the first video stream to a mediaplayer or other display component that may be included at the firstviewer node. The first viewer node may be operated by or otherwiseassociated with the one or more first viewers.

In the example of FIG. 8, operations 812B, 814B, and 816C are performedin association with generation of a second video stream that includesthe first portion of the video content with a second visual effectapplied thereto and that is provided for display to one or more secondviewers. This provides an example of targeting the first visual effectto the one or more first viewers, while targeting the second visualeffect to one or more second viewers. In particular, at operation 812B,second instructions are received related to applying a second visualeffect to at least the first portion of the video content for one ormore second viewers. At operation 814B, a second video stream isgenerated that includes the first portion of the video content with thesecond visual effect applied thereto. At operation 816B, the secondvideo stream is provided for display to the one or more second viewers,such as by providing the second video stream to a second viewer node ofthe plurality of viewer nodes that is operated by or otherwiseassociated with the one or more second viewers. As set forth above, thesecond video stream may be included in a plurality of video streams thatinclude the video content and that are provided for display to aplurality of viewers. In some examples, the second visual effect may notbe applied to the first portion of the video content in at least oneother video stream of the plurality of video streams—and in some casesmay not be applied to the first portion of the video content in anyother video stream of the plurality of video streams. In particular, insome examples, the second visual effect may not be applied to the firstportion of the video content in the first video stream of operation 814Aand 816A. Additionally, the first visual effect of operations 812A and814A may not be applied to the first portion of the video content in thesecond video stream.

An example system for transmitting and providing data will now bedescribed in detail. In particular, FIG. 9 illustrates an examplecomputing environment in which the embodiments described herein may beimplemented. FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically illustrating an exampleof a data center 85 that can provide computing resources to users 70 aand 70 b (which may be referred herein singularly as user 70 or in theplural as users 70) via user computers 72 a and 72 b (which may bereferred herein singularly as computer 72 or in the plural as computers72) via a communications network 73. Data center 85 may be configured toprovide computing resources for executing applications on a permanent oran as-needed basis. The computing resources provided by data center 85may include various types of resources, such as gateway resources, loadbalancing resources, routing resources, networking resources, computingresources, volatile and non-volatile memory resources, content deliveryresources, data processing resources, data storage resources, datacommunication resources and the like. Each type of computing resourcemay be available in a number of specific configurations. For example,data processing resources may be available as virtual machine instancesthat may be configured to provide various web services. In addition,combinations of resources may be made available via a network and may beconfigured as one or more web services. The instances may be configuredto execute applications, including web services, such as applicationservices, media services, database services, processing services,gateway services, storage services, routing services, security services,encryption services, load balancing services, application services andthe like. These services may be configurable with set or customapplications and may be configurable in size, execution, cost, latency,type, duration, accessibility and in any other dimension. These webservices may be configured as available infrastructure for one or moreclients and can include one or more applications configured as aplatform or as software for one or more clients. These web services maybe made available via one or more communications protocols. Thesecommunications protocols may include, for example, hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP) or non-HTTP protocols. These communications protocolsmay also include, for example, more reliable transport layer protocols,such as transmission control protocol (TCP), and less reliable transportlayer protocols, such as user datagram protocol (UDP). Data storageresources may include file storage devices, block storage devices andthe like.

Each type or configuration of computing resource may be available indifferent sizes, such as large resources—consisting of many processors,large amounts of memory and/or large storage capacity—and smallresources—consisting of fewer processors, smaller amounts of memoryand/or smaller storage capacity. Customers may choose to allocate anumber of small processing resources as web servers and/or one largeprocessing resource as a database server, for example.

Data center 85 may include servers 76 a and 76 b (which may be referredherein singularly as server 76 or in the plural as servers 76) thatprovide computing resources. These resources may be available as baremetal resources or as virtual machine instances 78 a-d (which may bereferred herein singularly as virtual machine instance 78 or in theplural as virtual machine instances 78).

The availability of virtualization technologies for computing hardwarehas afforded benefits for providing large scale computing resources forcustomers and allowing computing resources to be efficiently andsecurely shared between multiple customers. For example, virtualizationtechnologies may allow a physical computing device to be shared amongmultiple users by providing each user with one or more virtual machineinstances hosted by the physical computing device. A virtual machineinstance may be a software emulation of a particular physical computingsystem that acts as a distinct logical computing system. Such a virtualmachine instance provides isolation among multiple operating systemssharing a given physical computing resource. Furthermore, somevirtualization technologies may provide virtual resources that span oneor more physical resources, such as a single virtual machine instancewith multiple virtual processors that span multiple distinct physicalcomputing systems.

Referring to FIG. 9, communications network 73 may, for example, be apublicly accessible network of linked networks and possibly operated byvarious distinct parties, such as the Internet. In other embodiments,communications network 73 may be a private network, such as a corporateor university network that is wholly or partially inaccessible tonon-privileged users. In still other embodiments, communications network73 may include one or more private networks with access to and/or fromthe Internet.

Communication network 73 may provide access to computers 72. Usercomputers 72 may be computers utilized by users 70 or other customers ofdata center 85. For instance, user computer 72 a or 72 b may be aserver, a desktop or laptop personal computer, a tablet computer, awireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an e-bookreader, a game console, a set-top box or any other computing devicecapable of accessing data center 85. User computer 72 a or 72 b mayconnect directly to the Internet (e.g., via a cable modem or a DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL)). Although only two user computers 72 a and 72 bare depicted, it should be appreciated that there may be multiple usercomputers.

User computers 72 may also be utilized to configure aspects of thecomputing resources provided by data center 85. In this regard, datacenter 85 might provide a gateway or web interface through which aspectsof its operation may be configured through the use of a web browserapplication program executing on user computer 72. Alternately, astand-alone application program executing on user computer 72 mightaccess an application programming interface (API) exposed by data center85 for performing the configuration operations. Other mechanisms forconfiguring the operation of various web services available at datacenter 85 might also be utilized.

Servers 76 shown in FIG. 9 may be servers configured appropriately forproviding the computing resources described above and may providecomputing resources for executing one or more web services and/orapplications. In one embodiment, the computing resources may be virtualmachine instances 78. In the example of virtual machine instances, eachof the servers 76 may be configured to execute an instance manager 80 aor 80 b (which may be referred herein singularly as instance manager 80or in the plural as instance managers 80) capable of executing thevirtual machine instances 78. The instance managers 80 may be a virtualmachine monitor (VMM) or another type of program configured to enablethe execution of virtual machine instances 78 on server 76, for example.As discussed above, each of the virtual machine instances 78 may beconfigured to execute all or a portion of an application.

It should be appreciated that although the embodiments disclosed abovediscuss the context of virtual machine instances, other types ofimplementations can be utilized with the concepts and technologiesdisclosed herein. For example, the embodiments disclosed herein mightalso be utilized with computing systems that do not utilize virtualmachine instances.

In the example data center 85 shown in FIG. 9, a router 71 may beutilized to interconnect the servers 76 a and 76 b. Router 71 may alsobe connected to gateway 74, which is connected to communications network73. Router 71 may be connected to one or more load balancers, and aloneor in combination may manage communications within networks in datacenter 85, for example, by forwarding packets or other datacommunications as appropriate based on characteristics of suchcommunications (e.g., header information including source and/ordestination addresses, protocol identifiers, size, processingrequirements, etc.) and/or the characteristics of the private network(e.g., routes based on network topology, etc.). It will be appreciatedthat, for the sake of simplicity, various aspects of the computingsystems and other devices of this example are illustrated withoutshowing certain conventional details. Additional computing systems andother devices may be interconnected in other embodiments and may beinterconnected in different ways.

In the example data center 85 shown in FIG. 9, a server manager 75 isalso employed to at least in part direct various communications to, fromand/or between servers 76 a and 76 b. While FIG. 9 depicts router 71positioned between gateway 74 and server manager 75, this is merely anexemplary configuration. In some cases, for example, server manager 75may be positioned between gateway 74 and router 71. Server manager 75may, in some cases, examine portions of incoming communications fromuser computers 72 to determine one or more appropriate servers 76 toreceive and/or process the incoming communications. Server manager 75may determine appropriate servers to receive and/or process the incomingcommunications based on factors such as an identity, location or otherattributes associated with user computers 72, a nature of a task withwhich the communications are associated, a priority of a task with whichthe communications are associated, a duration of a task with which thecommunications are associated, a size and/or estimated resource usage ofa task with which the communications are associated and many otherfactors. Server manager 75 may, for example, collect or otherwise haveaccess to state information and other information associated withvarious tasks in order to, for example, assist in managingcommunications and other operations associated with such tasks.

It should be appreciated that the network topology illustrated in FIG. 9has been greatly simplified and that many more networks and networkingdevices may be utilized to interconnect the various computing systemsdisclosed herein. These network topologies and devices should beapparent to those skilled in the art.

It should also be appreciated that data center 85 described in FIG. 9 ismerely illustrative and that other implementations might be utilized. Itshould also be appreciated that a server, gateway or other computingdevice may comprise any combination of hardware or software that caninteract and perform the described types of functionality, includingwithout limitation: desktop or other computers, database servers,network storage devices and other network devices, PDAs, tablets,cellphones, wireless phones, pagers, electronic organizers, Internetappliances, television-based systems (e.g., using set top boxes and/orpersonal/digital video recorders) and various other consumer productsthat include appropriate communication capabilities.

In at least some embodiments, a server that implements a portion or allof one or more of the technologies described herein may include acomputer system that includes or is configured to access one or morecomputer-accessible media. FIG. 10 depicts a computer system thatincludes or is configured to access one or more computer-accessiblemedia. In the illustrated embodiment, computing device 15 includes oneor more processors 10 a, 10 b and/or 10 n (which may be referred hereinsingularly as “a processor 10” or in the plural as “the processors 10”)coupled to a system memory 20 via an input/output (I/O) interface 30.Computing device 15 further includes a network interface 40 coupled toI/O interface 30.

In various embodiments, computing device 15 may be a uniprocessor systemincluding one processor 10 or a multiprocessor system including severalprocessors 10 (e.g., two, four, eight or another suitable number).Processors 10 may be any suitable processors capable of executinginstructions. For example, in various embodiments, processors 10 may beembedded processors implementing any of a variety of instruction setarchitectures (ISAs), such as the x86, PowerPC, SPARC or MIPS ISAs orany other suitable ISA. In multiprocessor systems, each of processors 10may commonly, but not necessarily, implement the same ISA.

System memory 20 may be configured to store instructions and dataaccessible by processor(s) 10. In various embodiments, system memory 20may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, such as staticrandom access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM),nonvolatile/Flash®-type memory or any other type of memory. In theillustrated embodiment, program instructions and data implementing oneor more desired functions, such as those methods, techniques and datadescribed above, are shown stored within system memory 20 as code 25 anddata 26.

In one embodiment, I/O interface 30 may be configured to coordinate I/Otraffic between processor 10, system memory 20 and any peripherals inthe device, including network interface 40 or other peripheralinterfaces. In some embodiments, I/O interface 30 may perform anynecessary protocol, timing or other data transformations to convert datasignals from one component (e.g., system memory 20) into a formatsuitable for use by another component (e.g., processor 10). In someembodiments, I/O interface 30 may include support for devices attachedthrough various types of peripheral buses, such as a variant of thePeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard or the UniversalSerial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In some embodiments, thefunction of I/O interface 30 may be split into two or more separatecomponents, such as a north bridge and a south bridge, for example.Also, in some embodiments some or all of the functionality of I/Ointerface 30, such as an interface to system memory 20, may beincorporated directly into processor 10.

Network interface 40 may be configured to allow data to be exchangedbetween computing device 15 and other device or devices 60 attached to anetwork or networks 50, such as other computer systems or devices, forexample. In various embodiments, network interface 40 may supportcommunication via any suitable wired or wireless general data networks,such as types of Ethernet networks, for example. Additionally, networkinterface 40 may support communication via telecommunications/telephonynetworks, such as analog voice networks or digital fiber communicationsnetworks, via storage area networks such as Fibre Channel SANs (storagearea networks) or via any other suitable type of network and/orprotocol.

In some embodiments, system memory 20 may be one embodiment of acomputer-accessible medium configured to store program instructions anddata as described above for implementing embodiments of thecorresponding methods and apparatus. However, in other embodiments,program instructions and/or data may be received, sent or stored upondifferent types of computer-accessible media. Generally speaking, acomputer-accessible medium may include non-transitory storage media ormemory media, such as magnetic or optical media—e.g., disk or DVD/CDcoupled to computing device 15 via I/O interface 30. A non-transitorycomputer-accessible storage medium may also include any volatile ornon-volatile media, such as RAM (e.g., SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM, SRAM,etc.), ROM (read only memory) etc., that may be included in someembodiments of computing device 15 as system memory 20 or another typeof memory. Further, a computer-accessible medium may includetransmission media or signals such as electrical, electromagnetic ordigital signals conveyed via a communication medium, such as a networkand/or a wireless link, such as those that may be implemented vianetwork interface 40.

A network set up by an entity, such as a company or a public sectororganization, to provide one or more web services (such as various typesof cloud-based computing or storage) accessible via the Internet and/orother networks to a distributed set of clients may be termed a providernetwork. Such a provider network may include numerous data centershosting various resource pools, such as collections of physical and/orvirtualized computer servers, storage devices, networking equipment andthe like, needed to implement and distribute the infrastructure and webservices offered by the provider network. The resources may in someembodiments be offered to clients in various units related to the webservice, such as an amount of storage capacity for storage, processingcapability for processing, as instances, as sets of related services andthe like. A virtual computing instance may, for example, comprise one ormore servers with a specified computational capacity (which may bespecified by indicating the type and number of CPUs, the main memorysize and so on) and a specified software stack (e.g., a particularversion of an operating system, which may in turn run on top of ahypervisor).

A compute node, which may be referred to also as a computing node, maybe implemented on a wide variety of computing environments, such ascommodity-hardware computers, virtual machines, web services, computingclusters and computing appliances. Any of these computing devices orenvironments may, for convenience, be described as compute nodes.

A number of different types of computing devices may be used singly orin combination to implement the resources of the provider network indifferent embodiments, for example computer servers, storage devices,network devices and the like. In some embodiments a client or user maybe provided direct access to a resource instance, e.g., by giving a useran administrator login and password. In other embodiments the providernetwork operator may allow clients to specify execution requirements forspecified client applications and schedule execution of the applicationson behalf of the client on execution platforms (such as applicationserver instances, Java′ virtual machines (JVMs), general-purpose orspecial-purpose operating systems, platforms that support variousinterpreted or compiled programming languages such as Ruby, Perl,Python, C, C++ and the like or high-performance computing platforms)suitable for the applications, without, for example, requiring theclient to access an instance or an execution platform directly. A givenexecution platform may utilize one or more resource instances in someimplementations; in other implementations, multiple execution platformsmay be mapped to a single resource instance.

In many environments, operators of provider networks that implementdifferent types of virtualized computing, storage and/or othernetwork-accessible functionality may allow customers to reserve orpurchase access to resources in various resource acquisition modes. Thecomputing resource provider may provide facilities for customers toselect and launch the desired computing resources, deploy applicationcomponents to the computing resources and maintain an applicationexecuting in the environment. In addition, the computing resourceprovider may provide further facilities for the customer to quickly andeasily scale up or scale down the numbers and types of resourcesallocated to the application, either manually or through automaticscaling, as demand for or capacity requirements of the applicationchange. The computing resources provided by the computing resourceprovider may be made available in discrete units, which may be referredto as instances. An instance may represent a physical server hardwareplatform, a virtual machine instance executing on a server or somecombination of the two. Various types and configurations of instancesmay be made available, including different sizes of resources executingdifferent operating systems (OS) and/or hypervisors, and with variousinstalled software applications, runtimes and the like. Instances mayfurther be available in specific availability zones, representing alogical region, a fault tolerant region, a data center or othergeographic location of the underlying computing hardware, for example.Instances may be copied within an availability zone or acrossavailability zones to improve the redundancy of the instance, andinstances may be migrated within a particular availability zone oracross availability zones. As one example, the latency for clientcommunications with a particular server in an availability zone may beless than the latency for client communications with a different server.As such, an instance may be migrated from the higher latency server tothe lower latency server to improve the overall client experience.

In some embodiments the provider network may be organized into aplurality of geographical regions, and each region may include one ormore availability zones. An availability zone (which may also bereferred to as an availability container) in turn may comprise one ormore distinct locations or data centers, configured in such a way thatthe resources in a given availability zone may be isolated or insulatedfrom failures in other availability zones. That is, a failure in oneavailability zone may not be expected to result in a failure in anyother availability zone. Thus, the availability profile of a resourceinstance is intended to be independent of the availability profile of aresource instance in a different availability zone. Clients may be ableto protect their applications from failures at a single location bylaunching multiple application instances in respective availabilityzones. At the same time, in some implementations inexpensive and lowlatency network connectivity may be provided between resource instancesthat reside within the same geographical region (and networktransmissions between resources of the same availability zone may beeven faster).

As set forth above, content may be provided by a content provider to oneor more clients. The term content, as used herein, refers to anypresentable information, and the term content item, as used herein,refers to any collection of any such presentable information. A contentprovider may, for example, provide one or more content providingservices for providing content to clients. The content providingservices may reside on one or more servers. The content providingservices may be scalable to meet the demands of one or more customersand may increase or decrease in capability based on the number and typeof incoming client requests. Portions of content providing services mayalso be migrated to be placed in positions of reduced latency withrequesting clients. For example, the content provider may determine an“edge” of a system or network associated with content providing servicesthat is physically and/or logically closest to a particular client. Thecontent provider may then, for example, “spin-up,” migrate resources orotherwise employ components associated with the determined edge forinteracting with the particular client. Such an edge determinationprocess may, in some cases, provide an efficient technique foridentifying and employing components that are well suited to interactwith a particular client, and may, in some embodiments, reduce thelatency for communications between a content provider and one or moreclients.

In addition, certain methods or process blocks may be omitted in someimplementations. The methods and processes described herein are also notlimited to any particular sequence, and the blocks or states relatingthereto can be performed in other sequences that are appropriate. Forexample, described blocks or states may be performed in an order otherthan that specifically disclosed, or multiple blocks or states may becombined in a single block or state. The example blocks or states may beperformed in serial, in parallel or in some other manner. Blocks orstates may be added to or removed from the disclosed exampleembodiments.

It will also be appreciated that various items are illustrated as beingstored in memory or on storage while being used, and that these items orportions thereof may be transferred between memory and other storagedevices for purposes of memory management and data integrity.Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of the software modulesand/or systems may execute in memory on another device and communicatewith the illustrated computing systems via inter-computer communication.Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the systems and/ormodules may be implemented or provided in other ways, such as at leastpartially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to,one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), standardintegrated circuits, controllers (e.g., by executing appropriateinstructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embeddedcontrollers), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complexprogrammable logic devices (CPLDs), etc. Some or all of the modules,systems and data structures may also be stored (e.g., as softwareinstructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium, such asa hard disk, a memory, a network or a portable media article to be readby an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection. The systems,modules and data structures may also be transmitted as generated datasignals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digitalpropagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission media,including wireless-based and wired/cable-based media, and may take avariety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analogsignal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Suchcomputer program products may also take other forms in otherembodiments. Accordingly, the present invention may be practiced withother computer system configurations.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,”“might,” “may,” “e.g.” and the like, unless specifically statedotherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, isgenerally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, whileother embodiments do not include, certain features, elements, and/orsteps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended toimply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required forone or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarilyinclude logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting,whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to beperformed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,”“including,” “having” and the like are synonymous and are usedinclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additionalelements, features, acts, operations and so forth. Also, the term “or”is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so thatwhen used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or”means one, some or all of the elements in the list.

While certain example embodiments have been described, these embodimentshave been presented by way of example only and are not intended to limitthe scope of the inventions disclosed herein. Thus, nothing in theforegoing description is intended to imply that any particular feature,characteristic, step, module or block is necessary or indispensable.Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodiedin a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions,substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systemsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the spirit of theinventions disclosed herein. The accompanying claims and theirequivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as wouldfall within the scope and spirit of certain of the inventions disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system for visual effect applicationcomprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories havingstored therein instructions that, upon execution by the one or moreprocessors, cause the computing system perform operations comprising:receiving, from a provider, video content corresponding to an event,wherein the provider captures the video content from an application andprovides the video content to a service for streaming to a plurality ofviewers, wherein a plurality of video streams including the videocontent are provided for display to the plurality of viewers, the videocontent presented using live streaming whereby at least part of thevideo content is displayed to the plurality of viewers while the eventis still occurring; receiving, from the provider, instructions relatedto applying a first visual effect to at least a first portion of thevideo content for a first subset of the plurality of viewers but not fora second subset of the plurality of viewers, the first visual effectincluding conversion of one or more first pixel color values of thefirst portion of the video content to one or more second pixel colorvalues; generating a first video stream of the plurality of videostreams, the first video stream including the first portion of the videocontent with the first visual effect applied thereto, wherein the firstvisual effect is not applied to the first portion of the video contentin at least one other video stream of the plurality of video streamssent to at least one viewer in the second subset; and providing thefirst video stream for display to at least one viewer in the firstsubset.
 2. The computing system of claim 1, further comprising:generating a second video stream of the plurality of video streams, thesecond video stream including the first portion of the video contentwith a second visual effect applied thereto; and providing the secondvideo stream for display to the at least one viewer in the secondsubset.
 3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the second visualeffect is not applied to the first portion of the video content in thefirst video stream.
 4. A computer-implemented method for visual effectapplication comprising: receiving, from a provider, video content,wherein the provider captures the video content from an application andprovides the video content to a service for streaming to a plurality ofviewers, and wherein a plurality of video streams including the videocontent are provided to the plurality of viewers; receiving, from theprovider, instructions related to applying a first visual effect to atleast a first portion of the video content for a first subset of theplurality of viewers but not for a second subset of the plurality ofviewers, the first visual effect including conversion of one or morefirst pixel color values of the first portion of the video content toone or more second pixel color values; generating a first video streamof the plurality of video streams, the first video stream including thefirst portion of the video content with the first visual effect appliedthereto, wherein the first visual effect is not applied to the firstportion of the video content in at least one other video stream of theplurality of video streams sent to at least one viewer in the secondsubset; and providing the first video stream to at least one viewer inthe first subset.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, furthercomprising: generating a second video stream of the plurality of videostreams, the second video stream including the first portion of thevideo content with a second visual effect applied thereto; and providingthe second video stream to the at least one viewer in the second subset.6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the second visualeffect is not applied to the first portion of the video content in thefirst video stream.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 4,wherein access to the first visual effect is provided based, at least inpart, on a quantity of viewers of the video content.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the conversion comprisesuse of a lookup table that allows determination of the one or moresecond pixel color values based on the one or more first pixel colorvalues.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the firstvisual effect comprises at least one of bleach bypass, sepia toneconversion, cross processing, or a custom visual effect.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the video content isfrom a video game, and wherein the first visual effect is applied basedat least in part on state data from the video game.
 11. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the video contentcorresponds to an event, and wherein the video content is presentedusing live streaming whereby at least part of the video content isdisplayed to the plurality of viewers while the event is stilloccurring.
 12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storagemedia having stored thereon instructions that, upon execution by acomputing device, cause the computing device to perform operationscomprising: receiving, from a provider, video content, wherein theprovider captures the video content from an application and provides thevideo content to a service for streaming to a plurality of viewers, andwherein a plurality of video streams including the video content areprovided to the plurality of viewers; receiving, from the provider,instructions related to applying a first visual effect to at least afirst portion of the video content for a first subset of the pluralityof viewers but not for a second subset of the plurality of viewers, thefirst visual effect including conversion of one or more first pixelcolor values of the first portion of the video content to one or moresecond pixel color values; generating a first video stream of theplurality of video streams, the first video stream including the firstportion of the video content with the first visual effect appliedthereto, wherein the first visual effect is not applied to the firstportion of the video content in at least one other video stream of theplurality of video streams sent to at least one viewer in the secondsubset; and providing the first video stream to at least one viewer inthe first subset.
 13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readablestorage media of claim 12, wherein access to the first visual effect isprovided based, at least in part, on a quantity of viewers of the videocontent.
 14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storagemedia of claim 12, wherein the conversion comprises use of a lookuptable that allows determination of the one or more second pixel colorvalues based on the one or more first pixel color values.
 15. The one ormore non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 12, whereinthe first visual effect comprises at least one of bleach bypass, sepiatone conversion, cross processing, or a custom visual effect.
 16. Theone or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 12,wherein the video content is from a video game, and wherein the firstvisual effect is applied based at least in part on state data from thevideo game.
 17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storagemedia of claim 12, wherein the video content corresponds to an event,and wherein the video content is presented using live streaming wherebyat least part of the video content is displayed to the plurality ofviewers while the event is still occurring.